FFF Results Post #300—Then And Now

On Friday, CR readers were asked, "The First Five For Friday was launched on October 29, 2004. That was a long time ago. Discuss your life then and now as follows:

1. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your comics reading life since that date.
2. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your comics reading life since that date.
3. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your personal life since that date.
4. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your personal life since that date.
5. Which of those first four things surprises you the most, and why?

(Also, suggest/send/link to an image to illustrate your response.)

This is how they responded.



Tom Spurgeon

1. I actually got back into reading comics in 2004 after a few years of not reading them much at all, mostly thanks to the freebies knocked loose by doing this site. This includes all sorts of unlikely discoveries, including many comics I've flat-out enjoyed, comics that I wouldn't have come close to reading without CR.
2. I am still a terrible comics collector, with massive holes all over my "collection."
3. At one point in 2004, I weighed 513 pounds. Today I weigh 210. I don't know that I'll always keep it off. I want to, but I have 20 years of evidence that says I might not. Still, it's a big change and the most obvious one that leaps to mind just because that year was the year I can recall being over 500 pounds.
4. I'm still in Silver City, New Mexico.
5. The weight. I had become resigned during that year that I would never see 300 pounds again, and I probably wouldn't see 350 for very long.

*****



M. Emery

1. The bulk of my comics reading is reprinted or translated material.
2. I still spend way too much on comics.
3. I moved to Australia, the land of comics plenty, and settled down with a beautiful lady who supports my interest in comics. When we met as teens over twenty years ago I drew her a comic for her birthday.
4. I still leave the house as little as possible.
5. Number one. The Internet during the last several years has really opened my eyes to comics material produced the world over. After living at the bottom of the world for most of my life where comics are scarce it has been amazing to suddenly have access to so much more. Lots of catching up to do.

*****



Trevor Ashfield

1.) I take the Image Comics listings seriously now as a potential source of good comics.
2.) I can't shake the habit of buying monthly "floppy" comics even though I find the collections so much more satisfying reads. I guess I just gotta check out what is shiny and new!
3.) I became proficient enough in French to qualify as "bilingual" under the standards of the Canadian public service .
4.) I still live in the same apartment.
5.) The most surprising is # 2 because I was sure, years ago that I was winding down monthly comics purchases. But a weekly habit of 40 years is hard to break!

*****



Patrick Ford

1. The comic book shop I had been buying comics from since 1984 closed, and there are no comic book shops near me.
2. Robert Crumb, and Jack Kirby are still my two favorite comic book creators.
3. Everyone is eight years older.
4. Same wife, kids, house, job.
5. I guess the comic book shop closing, I was surprised it held on as long as it did,

*****



Michael Grabowski

1. By the end of 2004, I finally stopped visiting the comics shop weekly, something I had been doing at least since getting my driver license 19 years before. The end of Cerebus some months before is the particular mental landmark that led to this, but the gradual disappearance of the "alt-comics pamphlet," the hour round-trip to the closest store, and the birth of my first child all contributed to this.
2. I still collect obsessively when I latch on to new things to collect, and I have real difficulty trying to prune the collection even slightly.
3. I now have two children.
4. I still live in the same small home.
5. I expected to be living in a larger, more traditional house by now. One with room for both growing children and a growing collection of multi-volume archival books of classic comics and strips that I collect obsessively and fail to prune well.

*****



Tom Bondurant

1. I no longer read every comic in each week's haul on that day, or sometimes even during that week. Lately I am behind a month on some series.
2. I still buy new comics each Wednesday from the local comics shop, and I still read the bulk of them that day.
3. The biggest change in my personal life since that date is the birth of my daughter, who is now almost 4 years old. She's the biggest reason my comics-reading habits have changed.
4. Something that hasn't changed in my personal life is that I am still married. At the risk of being obvious, even marriage wasn't as big an adjustment as fatherhood.
5. Item 1 surprises me the most. My Wednesday haul is as big as it's ever been, and I'm still pretty interested in everything, but there's no longer as much urgency to read it all in one big sitting. I'm surprised because it used to be such a ritual, like my day wasn't complete until the last new comic was read, and now I let it slide into Thursday or even the weekend. (And that's ironic too, because I've been getting the weekly hauls since new comics came out on Fridays.)

*****



Milo George

1. I rarely keep comics after reading them now; not counting stuff I worked on, I only have a handful of comics keepers on my shelf six years after a flood destroyed my library.
2. I still prefer Ben Reilly, and you would have too if you could let go of your childish love for whatever crappy post-150 issue of Amazing Spider-Man was your jam. Also, it's not Ben's fault editorial "lost the plot," in every sense of the phrase.
3. Dating is exponentially easier now.
4. I'm back to being an underemployed resident of the Pacific Northwest, and still exceptional at evading complisults about my Journal run from strangers I encounter at gatherings.
5. Dating! I would make an "It Gets Better" video for awkward 20something guys if I could think of a way to do it without sounding like a creep. As poorly as it reflects on our society, The Crossing is a real thing; sorry ladies.

*****



Buzz Dixon

1. Almost exclusively an online experience for me now. I prefer it that way (I can browse while working; ah, the glories of multi-tasking...) and my shelves are no longer crowded with books I rarely open or long boxes I open more rarely still.
2. I still say Joe Martin is an underappreciated genius.
3. Got rid of a large life draining external parasite.
4. Still married, still got the hots for my wife.
5. I'm surprised how easily I've abandoned paper. I still love the feel and heft of a good book, but for content I'll go to a screen anytime.

*****



Jeff Flowers

1. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your comics reading life since that date. That I buy very few stapled comics these days. Almost everything I buy is in book form.
2. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your comics reading life since that date. I still only buy creator owned comics. I feel that it is morally wrong for creators not to hold the copyright for the things they create.
3. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your personal life since that date. For the last two years, I have had almost daily episodes of light-headedness and heart palpitations. Despite some very through medical testing, no cause has ever been found for this. I finally went to a shrink this year, who put me on Prozac. It hasn't stopped my symptoms but as least now I am not as scared about them.
4. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your personal life since that date. That I have been lucky enough to be employed continuously through some very tough times for our country, even though I had to change jobs.
5. Which of those first four things surprises you the most, and why? I am surprised to still be alive, as I thought for sure that I was going to die when I started having my medical symptoms, but I am still here and I hope to be reading comics for many years to come.

*****



Chad Nevett

1. I buy new comics every Wednesday. For the longest time, I'd go to the shop once or twice a month because I was young and didn't have much money, but, since the beginning of 2008, I've gone to the shop every week.
2. I still buy everything by writers like Joe Casey, Warren Ellis, and Grant Morrison.
3. I am going to get married in October this year.
4. I spend a big chunk of my time either reading or watching something, obsessing over the areas of popculture that I love to the point where it's a little weird.
5. Getting married. In 2004, even having a girlfriend seemed like a longshot and, now, I'll have a wife in a little over three months.

*****



Tony Collett

1. That I get my comics from a mail order place (DCBS) instead of going to the comics shop every week.
2. That I'm still into comics. Currently 41 years without a break.
3. That I went from a job I hated and massive credit card debt to a lot less debt and on the cusp of getting back into the daily workgrind again.
4. That I'm still married to my wife Kathy.
5. The job and debt thing. Two things that I thought I would be stuck with until I die are both out of my life, and I'm not looking back.

*****



Michael Dooley

1. Reading comics on the iPad! Love it! And with the exception of books by Spieg, Ware, and the few others who engage in the physicality of the object, I greatly prefer it to the print version.
2. I'm still way, way behind in my reading of comics... and books, magazines, etc. But, happily, thus it will ever be. Looking forward!
3. Personal life change somewhat obliquely related to comics reading: long story short, thanks to my 2005 "Education of a Comics Artist" book I've become a design history instructor and a weekly columnist for Print magazine's online edition, covering comics, etc.
4. Still investigating, marveling, learning, etc.
5. The iPad. Pre-iPhone, I was a "Paper Then Now and Forever!" guy.

*****



Matt Silvie

1. 2004 was the last year I helped out on the editorial side of things with those special editions of The Comics Journal. That one from that year was the manga and Vaughn Bode one that was released in 2005; Sadowski did really amazing work with the art direction on that one.
2. I'm still selling ads for The Comics Journal.
3. Biggest personal change since then would have to be the girlfriend situation.
4. I'm still living in Seattle.
5. I'm not surprised by any of the above.

*****



Aaron White

1. I no longer buy comics every week, or even every month (see #3 for reason)
2. I get frustrated by comics shops that are mostly about superheroes.
3. I got married.
4. I'm a lazy slob who tightens up if I'm held accountable by someone whose respect I crave.
5. I never expected to find a woman who'd have me.

*****



Shannon Smith

1) In 2007 I launched file under other and dove head first into reviewing minicomics. That inspired/informed/changed about 95% of the rest of my reading as well sending it in an exact opposite course from where my reading had been focused.
2) Still a fool for cheap 70s Marvel comics and/or the Essentials collections.
3) Can't really put it into one single event. More of a life changing phase. Between Dec. 30 2006 and July 15 2007 I had a 2nd kid, changed jobs (retail to IT including intense night classes to learn IT) and moved my family from suburban Atlanta to ultra rural (I see cows out my window) southwest VA.
4) Family.
5) Number three. That seven month phase of my life is an unbelievable blur. I was very happy in my job (manager at Borders) and my life in Atlanta and would never have imagined moving back to the place I spent 17 years trying to get out of. But, I had some sort of Spider-Sense of impending doom, saw an opportunity and escaped. And of course, Borders is gone now.

*****



Rob Clough

1. After a lifetime of reading superhero comics, I pretty much quit them all in 2005 and liquidated years of collecting.
2. I still have catholic tastes, which has aided me as a critic given that I review nearly everything thrown my way. My love for minicomics continues unabated.
3. I got married to a lovely woman named Laura and we have a firecracker of a daughter (Penelope, photo attached).
4. I've had the same job since 1990.
5. Having a child is not something that had been a goal of mine, but rather something that started to fall into place for me after the death of my father in 2008. It's been a hell of an adventure.

*****



Justin J. Major

1. I no longer read two newspapers' comic strips every single day.
2. I still feel like Marvel and DC are actively, spitefully alienating me.
3. Death stepped up and reasserted that Entropy will always, always win.
4. My family is still the tops. The TOPS, man!
5. I could never have imagined that I would go days and days without reading the funny pages. A decade later and I still miss Sparky.

*****



Matthew Craig

1. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your comics reading life since that date.
Volume. I used to buy a lot more comics -- trades, manga, single issues -- but now? Not so many. Why? Money, space, changing tastes. The fact that my disposable income is better spent on making my own comics. I look back on those golden years, or the boxes they filled, with a mixture of fondness and astonishment: fondness for all the books and anthologies that I found so inspirational, and astonishment that I could put up with some of the more egregious titles for so long.

2. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your comics reading life since that date.
My LCS (Another World, Wolverhampton). They have been very patient with me and my increasingly erratic visits, holding my books for longer than some shops might deem necessary. They don't have much in the way of back issue bins, but the Sale shelf has been a source of some a-mazing manga (Erica Sakurazawa! Monkey Punch!). Best of all, they have been very supportive of my small-press efforts. A supplementary source has been the discount bookshop in the adjoining shopping centre, from whom I have bought a good 70% of my trades over the last decade (from Love and Rockets through to GoGo Wonder Woman).

3. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your personal life since that date.
I became a small-press comics creator. Had to teach myself to draw to do it, and that's led to frustration, joy, heartache, triumph, televison, upholstery and crippling injury to my drawing hand that will require multiple (small) surgeries to correct, if it ever truly does. It also got me off my arse and out of the house, to comic shows and craft fairs, and led to adventures and friendships that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

4. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your personal life since that date.
My ponytail is still ridiculous. Superstition keeps the barber at bay. The split ends haunt the girl who tames my mighty beard!

5. Which of those first four things surprises you the most, and why?
I guess I always knew I was going to end up making comics, right from 6th Form/University. What I didn't count on was how much I was going to miss being able to draw them. Look after your hands, kiddies. Look after your hands.

*****



Jones

1. I only read comics with hard spines now -- you know, comic books that are *real* books (surely this will be #1 for lots of people, right?)
2. I'll still buy new Chris Ware, day of release, sight unseen
3. Only a few, terrifying days away from having a baby
4. Still married to same, long-suffering woman
5. Reading comic-book *books* only. It was inconceivable in 2004 that the Australian dollar would reach parity with the US (or even higher!), and that it would thereby become %one zillion more affordable here to buy nice books from the States.

*****



Michael Russo

1. I've gotten back into reading Marvel and DC titles, and that has meant that I'm picking up more comics on a regular basis. For a while I was all about indies and not following whatever the most recent permutation of the X-Men were up to, and happy not to be bothered. I followed a bunch of DC books up until the change the the new 52, and am currently enjoying a lot of the Marvel headliners every month (or sometimes twice a month). I still read a lot of stuff from smaller companies, but there's been a lot of bleed between the two areas in that time too. But there used to be weeks that I would leave the store empty handed, or happy to have gotten one or two things. Now it's more like five or six things a week and sometimes more.
2. There are perennials that I will pick up, just based on the name of the creator, and that hasn't changed and probably never will. Ware, Clowes, Seth, but also Chaykin. Others have been added to the category (Fraction) but the category has always been there. I feel that it's important to support creative people and let them make their own journey, to just go along for the ride.
3. Had a son. Thought about Kirby for some part of his name, but opted for a presidential tribute instead. And now we look at comics together and he's a fiend for imaginary match-ups. I think he's mainly about Iron Man, but Captain Marvel (Shazam!) has been making inroads since the spring.
4. Still with my wife, since 1989 (married 2006).
5. It would be funny, I think, to say that it's more strange to me to be reading Marvel titles on a regular basis than to have had a son, but it's having had a son that's the most strange, or new, or different. Plus, the truly odd part of the first thing is only apparent from the perspective of my life in the nineties.

*****



Richard Thompson

1. I don't grab the Washington Post Style section every day and read every strip in its three pages of comics, beginning with my least and ending with my most favorite. For one thing, the Style section is now down to two pages of comics. For another producing a daily comic strip can make reading them every day seem too much like work.
2. I still read an lot of comics, though maybe now it's by osmosis.
3. That Parkinson's thing. Simultaneously, the thought pops into my head that the number of people I count as good friends has grown enormously
4. Life still seems like a daily slog through deadlines; dreary at the time but kinda fun in retrospect.
5. I honestly don't know, because I sure didn't plan any of it. Probably the bit about all the good friends.

*****



Paul Stock

1. I rarely read them at all, and then only the odd Simpsons, Archie, Hate annual, the odd thing here & there.
2. I still devour Previews
3. Massive stroke 2008. Permanent left arm/hand paralysis makes it very hard to handle books, turn pages.
4. Still a struggle trying to make a living as an ethical comics retailer.
5. #3: I didn't expect to be left in half. Sometimes I think half is worse than none (dead).

I still kinda miss Rory (Root). He was struggling to get around when I last saw him in Feb 2008, but he didn't seem to be at Death's door, yet he was gone just a few months later.

*****



Danny Ceballos

1. The number of comics items that I began purchasing via the internet; I had a better income in 2004 and could afford to buy some deep pocket comics items I had my eye on (Like an original Harvey Kurtzman page from Jungle Book)
2. I still tend to seek out the weird and arty, single creator comics works; I didn't get into comics until the late 80's, when I began taking my little brother to a comics store, and I started my reading of comics with Jim Woodring, Chester Brown, Julie Doucet and Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, the first serial comic I followed on a monthly basis.
3. I moved from Los Angeles to Wisconsin in 2008; obviously not having access to the stores like Meltdown, Giant Robot or Family means that I have to rely on web stores for most of my current purchases.
4. I'm still a collector; records, books, movie posters, comics. I wish I could control this collecting impulse, but I guess having a nice copy of He Done Her Wrong is better than being addicted to the cocaine.
5. I'm surprised about living in Wisconsin, surprised at how much I love the quieter world of the Midwest. No traffic, less stress, friendlier people and all the cheese curds a man could want.

*****



Evan Dorkin

1. My main source for comics these days is the public library, which I would never have seen coming.
2. Undergrounds are still a big blind spot for me. I stayed away from them because my earliest teenage impressions were that they were full of nothing but dope, sex and violence and I was scared off. For all I know that's what most of them were, but in the 80's I got into a lot of comics that were inspired by the Undergrounds and I only have a cursory knowledge of that material. I've barely read The Freak Brothers, fer chrissakes, haven't cracked Binky Brown, and have a very ambivalent attitude towards Crumb's non-Weirdo work. Too bad the library doesn't have runs of Zap, et al.
3. The birth of our daughter, Emily, in 2005.
4. Finances...
5. Emily. I never thought I'd actually have a child, because I thought I'd be a terrible parent based on my family history and where my head was for most of my adult life. Even in 2004 the question was still up in the air as to whether we'd start a family or not, with the clock ticking and 40 looming. I certainly never pictured myself years later at Heroes Con with a little cosplayer in tow, requesting her first sketches all by herself and finding a copy of Adventure Time #3 to fill the hole in her collection. Crazy.

Evan sent a link to this photo; which looks like all rights reserved; you should go look at it, though -- Dorkin and his daughter and Roger Langridge at Heroes

*****



Marc Sobel

1. By far the biggest change would have to be the completion of my Love & Rockets books, which I started a little over five years ago. Immersing myself in the Hernandez Brothers' wonderful series literally changed my life.
2. I still prefer floppies to GNs and I still obsessively bag and board everything.
3. In the last five years I have experienced the biggest emotional highs (welcoming my two sons) and lows (losing my brother-in-law) in my entire life.
4. I am blessed to have a wonderful job and great wife who have been stable parts of my life for the last five years.
5. Definitely the Love & Rockets books. The fact that they are being published by Fantagraphics is very exciting and I can't wait for fans of the series to read them.

*****



Joe Keatinge

1. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your comics reading life since that date.
November 15th, 2004 was my first day employed in the Image Comics offices. While I had worked as a color flatter and other small gigs before then, it was my first Big Deal Job in the industry. Working alongside guys like Eric Stephenson and Erik Larsen as well as every single person to walk through the door as a Production Artist or Accounts Manager to anything else changed my life in every single way -- in a lot of ways professionally, a lot of other ways personally. As a reader, it changed the way I look at comics. Seeing how the sausage is made definitely affected how I look at the industry. Not necessarily in a bad way. Just differently. I was aware of everything going into comics - not just these amazing, passionate creators, but what it takes to be one of them. How hard it can be. How great it can be. How horrible it can be. How there's not a better job on the planet. How there's days it's nothing but rough. I saw what it takes to make them happen. I saw the good and bad that goes into their production. Looking at a lineup on the new release wall had this additional layer of viewing them not just as this desired art object I've had a lifelong love with, but also a commodity in an industry.

2. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your comics reading life since that date.
I love comics just as much as I did when I was a kid. This medium is so beautifully brilliant and I still get a charge out of heading down to the comic shop. Yeah, I see the business behind them now, but it doesn't matter. I love comics more than anything else besides human beings.

3. The first thing that pops into your head in terms of a big change in your personal life since that date.
April 30th, 2010 was my last day employed in the Image Comics offices. I've been freelance ever since. That stands as the most significant, massive change in my life in every single possible way. The first several months were scary as Hell, but over time -- especially after my move to Portland, OR where I finally found a creative community I truly connected with -- it became the best possible thing to ever happen to me. I loved my time behind the scenes at a single publisher, but working now primarily as a writer with multiple companies feels truly right to me. I am very thankful for being here, now.

4. The first thing that pops into your head as something that hasn't changed about your personal life since that date.
I will still stop whatever I'm doing to head to the comic shop every Wednesday, despite wherever I am.

5. Which of those first four things surprises you the most, and why?
Definitely 3. That transition was, like I said, pretty damn scary. I am extremely relieved its gone the way it has so far. I started completely unsure about my future, unsure as to if it would even still involve comics on a professional level. Now I'm making my entire living writing comics full time. I'm a lucky, grateful dude.

*****



Victor Edison

1.) In 2004 I was a 26 year old "fan boy" visiting the comic shops every Wednesday and picking up my favorite titles, most of them involving grown men punching each other. Now I only buy trades on amazon.com and my tastes revolve around "slice of life" or biography works. (Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, Chester Brown, etc.)
2.) I still prefer paper to digital (we'll see if this holds true for the next 8 years).
3.) In 2004 I was living in an apartment in NJ that I shared with my friends from art school. Now I'm married with a kid, living in Japan.
4.) I still draw comics in my free time.
5.) Obviously, the changes in my personal life surprised me the most. When I was 26 I thought I'd be a "comic rockstar" touring the country on the convention circuit, not settled down living a life in another country with a job that has no relation to comics at all.

*****



John R. Platt

1. I'll go months without reading a comics in pamphlet form. I tend to let them stack up (and up and up) and then work my way through huge chunks of the pile when I can find an all-too-rare free afternoon.
2. I still buy every issue of Usagi Yojimbo. Last year I re-read the entire series from the beginning (and then caught up on the previous two years -- see above) and enjoyed every single page of it. My appreciation for this comic continues to deepen every time I read it.
3. We moved from New Jersey to Maine, which not only placed us into a slow-paced, rural environment, it also, for the first time in my adult life, put me more than an hour away from the the closest comic shop. I remember making previous decisions about where I lived based on how close they were to nearby shops (always plural). Weird. (Of course, on the rare times when I get down to Portland I head straight to Casablanca Comics. What a great store, probably my second favorite of all time.)
4. I'm still with the same lovely woman.
5. That I'm not a widower. The last few years have, at times, been tough on my partner's health. Many a night I have dreaded going to sleep, not sure if she would be alive next to me the next morning. But now she is coming back, maybe stronger than ever. She's my real-life hero.

*****



Mark Coale

1. In 2004, I probably bought 20+ DC comics a month. Now, with Scalped ending next month, it will be zero.
2. Still buying Usagi Yojimbo after all these years.
3. Lived in VIrginia, now live in Delaware.
4. Still not publishing my magazine on any kind of regular basis. (1 issue since 2004)
5. I don't think I would have believed it if you told the 2004 me that I would not only be buying zero DC Comics, but I would actively loathe the company (not the creators themselves) and use my persuasive skills as a writer to convince people to stop buying their products. I also wouldn't have believed how easy it was to go cold turkey with the reheat, after 35+ years of being a loyal company fanboy, touting the strength's of the underdog (as much as one could be being owned by Time Warner) against the Marvel juggernaut.

*****



Alan David Doane

1. I read almost no floppies anymore. Buy mostly trades and hardcovers.
2. Still eagerly await every new Alan Moore release.
3. The entire focus of my career changed from one aspect of the business I am in to another. Went from radio news anchor, writer and editor to copywriter and production director.
4. Still married to my wife Lora.
5. #1. I watched almost everyone I knew switch to "waiting for the trade" and never thought I would make that transition. But I have.

*****



David Brothers

1. Buying an iPad turned digital comics from an awkward thing I read sometimes into a vital part of my comics-reading experience. I take it everywhere now, and I'm never far from my most favorite comics.
2. I'm still buying more books on a monthly basis than is probably wise, and certainly more than I can keep up with in any reasonable fashion.
3. Between now and 2004, I moved to San Francisco and began my career in earnest. It was my first time on my own, my first time living in a real city since 2002, and clear across the country from home.
4. I'm still trying to get a handle on my sense of fashion, constantly trying new things and flashing through newfound personal fads.
5. The move to San Francisco surprises me the most. In 2004, I was stuck in a rut, to put it kindly, and sleepwalking through life.

*****



Domingos Isabelinho

1. I'm reading mostly graphic novels instead of pamphlets now.
2. I still largely prefer alternative comics.
3. I'm a blogger now.
4. Basically my life is just the same.
5. What surprises me is the fact that I'm still a blogger. Usually I never stick to the same thing for long if I don't have to. On the other hand I just did half of The Crib, so, nothing's really new under the sun.

*****



Mike Everleth

1. I don't go to a comic book shop regularly anymore. Aside from one brief visit about two weeks ago, I haven't spent serious time in a comic shop in what feels like years.
2. I continue to be fascinated about what's going on in the world of mainstream superhero comics and like looking at news websites about them. However, whenever I read any -- e.g. when I take GN collections out of the library -- I usually find it a completely unsatisfying experience.
3. I've had a string of very different jobs since then in ways I wouldn't have expected my career to have gone.
4. I'm still very happily married to the love of my life.
5. That I don't go to comic book shops anymore. I used to go weekly come hell or high water for well over a dozen or more years. The fact that I don't care abut reading new comic books anymore would shock the shit out of a younger me.

*****

thanks to all that participated and thanks for the many kind personal notes

*****
*****
 
posted 12:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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